The program will kick off from Friday in the Sri Lankan capital city of Colombo. [break]
The program is being held on the occasion of half-yearly general meeting of the Hotel Association of Nepal (HAN), for which the leading hoteliers of the country have already reached Colombo.
“Though a large number of Sri Lankans visit Nepal, only a few of them reach Pokhara. Hence, we are organizing the promotional campaign to encourage them to visit the lake city while they travel to Lumbini, the birthplace of Gautam Buddha,” said Biplav Paudel, president of Western Regional Hotel Association of Nepal.
Some 50,000 Sri Lankans visit Nepal every year, records show. However, a large chunk of the visitors, roughly 90 percent of them, comes to Nepal with the sole purpose of a pilgrimage to Lumbini. Only a few of them visit other cities or go for touring or trekking.
“Of the total Sri Lankan tourists, only an estimated 5 percent visit Pokhara,” said Baikuntha Acharya, chief of Tourism Board, Pokhara. “This figure is too low,” he stated, adding that such a dismal figure of visits could be due to the lack of knowledge on the part of Sri Lankan tour operators and the tourists themselves.
During the campaign, Nepali entrepreneurs will offer joint tour packages that will include visits to both Lumbini and Pokhara. In order to draw the attention of Sri Lankans, who are already keen visitors to Lumbini, the entrepreneurs will highlight the lake city´s specialties and its popularity among tourists from other countries.
The Western Hotel Association is also organizing a “Nepal Nite” in Colombo to send out this message. The campaign will also feature interactions between Nepali and Sri Lankan tour operators. The interaction will also include other tourism service providers and the media to build a tie up for the joint promotion of tourism in both countries.
“We will enter an understanding for a bilateral business exchange,” said Paudel, expressing hope that it will foster direct business linkages between Nepali and Sri Lankan entrepreneurs. In absence of direct business links, Sri Lankan tourists largely rely on Indian tour operators for their visit to Nepal.
“The campaign, we are confident, will help us to establish direct business ties and lure a significant number of Sri Lankans to Pokhara,” said Paudel. Despite the focus on Pokhara, Paudel said the campaign will also promote all the major tourism destinations of Nepal.
Related story
Sri Lankans vote for a new president to heal divisions after Ea...
